The Audience at The Stables Theatre in Hastings

For 60 years Queen Elizabeth II has met her prime ministers in private for a weekly audience at Buckingham Palace.

Peter Morgan’s play The Audience breaks this contract of silence as it imagines pivotal meetings between the Downing Street incumbents and their queen. From Churchill to Cameron, each prime minister has used these private conversations as a sounding board and a confessional - sometimes intimate, sometimes explosive.

From young mother to grandmother, these moments chart the arc of the second Elizabethan Age. Politicians come and go through the revolving door of electoral politics, while she remains constant, waiting to welcome her next prime minister.

The Audience will now be performed in Hastings from March 8-16 as a Stables Theatre Production directed by France Viner.

The Queen will be played by Janet McCarter and Emily Cooper, while her ministers range from Sir Anthony Eden played by Robert Stewart to Gordon Brown played by Chris Rose. The vital role of the corgi is taken by Beni. Performances at 7.30pm, tickets £13.50.